Welcome to the new boards

[Ben Seeman]

At long last, here they are! WOOHOO!

Throughout the first part of this week, you guys will probably notice some inconsistencies in the stability of the site. This is to reflect the stability of my mind. As the week goes on, the site, and my sanity, will become much more stable. Currently, the board, Digital Hero and the online store are being run off of the new server and over the next couple days the rest of the stie will be transfered and our DNS entry finally updated to reflect the change.
Thanks for your patience duringthis entire process.

Ben

[bcholmes]

Yay!

Looks good!

[Simon]

Just a few notes for everyone on the new logins:

The original intent was to setup everything to feed off of the same login. Unfortunately, there were a few issues in doing this with vBulletin (the ugliness of PHP notwithstanding, they also encrypt their passwords in their database, making it very difficult to intercept/forward registration changes to the database that drives the rest of the site).

So, effectively, there are 2 logins for the Hero Games site. One login will be used for the Chat Rooms, Digital Hero, and the Store. The other login will be used for the message boards. (note: there's nothing stopping you from making both of these logins the same).

Hope this makes sense!

[Jerry A!]

The new boards look great!!! Congrats on getting all this pulled together.

Just out of curiosity, could you please entertain one or two suggestions?

1) Please consider installing some other color schemes. At least something that is black on white.

2) Is there any direct URL that will take one directly to the message board only. I understand the embedded frame aspect creates a nice, unifying look. However, on slower connections it does make things a drag as the top & sidebar as well as images are loaded.

But I swear, i really love the new site! :D

[Simon]

There is no "embedded frameset" anymore. No framesets of any kind ;)

If you're on a dialup, you can set your browser cache settings so that it just uses the cached images rather than pulling them down each time....should help with the speed.

[Hierax]

Good to see the new boards up!

Is the content from the old message boards going to be transferred over to the new boards OR will it be available in an archived format? Will it be available at all?

There's just so much good content there that I'd hate not to be able to access it.

Thanks!

[Yamo]

Thanks!

[Ben Seeman]

Originally posted by Hierax
Good to see the new boards up!

Is the content from the old message boards going to be transferred over to the new boards OR will it be available in an archived format? Will it be available at all?

There's just so much good content there that I'd had not to be able to access it.

Thanks!

Once the site is completely stable I'll be looking to restore the old discussion board threads.

[lemming]

Nice going ben.

Though maybe you want to put a note in the registration email to change
http://www.herogames.com to http://herogame.dans.cust.servlets.net

unless the url is always going to be at servlets.

[EternityShard]

Hmm. Perhaps this is unique to me, and it most certainly isn't a large problem, but on the message board homepage, the New Posts icons don't unset unless I click on the "mark all post as read" in that forum, even if I've read the one post in there.

Is this a setting I'm missing, or is this a problem for anyone else. Though I realize it was a different message board, this was working correctly for me on the Temporary Boards.

[Simon]

It's the way the boards are intended to function. Just a difference in the software being used.

The new messages flag is set by your last login time. Clicking "mark all messages as read" will update your last login time (effectively) and clear the flags.

Logging in again will have the same effect ;)

[Jerry A!]

Originally posted by EternityShard
Hmm. Perhaps this is unique to me, and it most certainly isn't a large problem, but on the message board homepage, the New Posts icons don't unset unless I click on the "mark all post as read" in that forum, even if I've read the one post in there.

Is this a setting I'm missing, or is this a problem for anyone else. Though I realize it was a different message board, this was working correctly for me on the Temporary Boards.

I'm seeing the same thing here. Could this be a cookie mismatch issue?

Also, is there anyway to jump back to the "View New Posts" page once you start reading a thread from there? Currently, it just takes you to the thread proper.

[EternityShard]

Originally posted by dsimon
It's the way the boards are intended to function. Just a difference in the software being used.

The new messages flag is set by your last login time. Clicking "mark all messages as read" will update your last login time (effectively) and clear the flags.

Logging in again will have the same effect ;)

Aha. Good to know it is at least operating as intended, though I assumed it would update as I browsed, like on the temp boards.

[Jerry A!]

Originally posted by dsimon
It's the way the boards are intended to function. Just a difference in the software being used.

The new messages flag is set by your last login time. Clicking "mark all messages as read" will update your last login time (effectively) and clear the flags.

Logging in again will have the same effect ;)

That's pretty counter-intuitive. So all posts will always be marked as unread unless I manually mark them as read, or I log out?

Sorta makes those arrow buttons useless if you plan on staying around or hitting a forum more than once.

[Monolith]

Is there an address for the message boards that is not part of the Hero Games webpage? I would much rather go there to get on the boards than to lose such a large portion of my small screen to the Hero Games borders.

[Simon]

It's all one and the same. This is not part of a frameset. The boards are setup to have the normal navigation links along the top and left side of the page.

[Delthrien]

I was just noticing the absence of the "Player Finder" board. Is this no longer a feature or is it something to be added later?... or none of the above?

Charlie

[Monolith]

I liked it much better without the borders. With the borders I have to slide everything to the right just to post or reply to a message. That is a big pain in the butt; especially when I am on a laptop.

[Jerry A!]

Just noticed that you were modifying the stuff on the fly. Saw what the board looked like w/out the top and side nav parts.

Personally, I kinda liked it that way.

Maybe we can split the difference and keep the top nav part and just do away with the side one?

And let me just say this now. Thank you for the hard work and responsiveness. I know we'll all sound like we're complaining. But we're all after the same thing, making these the best boards possible.

So once again, thanks in advance for taking the time to get everything up and running and for taking the time to listen to us.

[EternityShard]

Originally posted by Monolith
I liked it much better without the borders. With the borders I have to slide everything to the right just to post or reply to a message. That is a big pain in the butt; especially when I am on a laptop.

You must be running in an awfully small resolution. Even at 800x600, I only lose 10 pixels or so on the right, and I don't need to scroll over to get to any buttons.

[MisterVimes]

BEEEEEEEEEYOOOTIFUL!
It's good to be home.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by EternityShard
You must be running in an awfully small resolution. Even at 800x600, I only lose 10 pixels or so on the right, and I don't need to scroll over to get to any buttons.
That was fixed. I think when I posted that I was in the middle of a change-over by Dan and Ben. It's better now. I only have to scroll a small amount.

I am using 800x600, by the way. I have found that the lower your resolution the faster Hero Designer runs. :)

[MisterVimes]

Now I just need to find an avatar that looks ok at 50x50...
Hint Hint:D

[MisterVimes]

When I recieve an e-mail letting me know that there is a reply to my post, I get:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=xx&goto=newpost

Which gives me a 404

instead of

http://herogame.dans.cust.servlets.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=xx&goto=newpost

Am I the only one having a problem with this?

[EternityShard]

Originally posted by MisterVimes
Am I the only one having a problem with this?

Nope, you're not. This was mentioned in one of the other posts on this board regarding the initial setup emails.

[Ben Seeman]

Originally posted by MisterVimes

Am I the only one having a problem with this?

Until the DNS changes are completed you will have to manually type in the "herogame.dans..." portion of the URL. Once the change is completed, the "www.herogames.com..." URL will work.

Please be patient. :)

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by EternityShard
Nope, you're not. This was mentioned in one of the other posts on this board regarding the initial setup emails.

I can always count on you to RTFM, Joe :D

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by ben
Until the DNS changes are completed you will have to manually type in the "herogame.dans..." portion of the URL. Once the change is completed, the "www.herogames.com..." URL will work.

Please be patient. :)

No problems... I fully understand the trials of waiting for DNS to resolve to a new server.

[EternityShard]

Originally posted by MisterVimes
I can always count on you to RTFM, Joe :D

RTFM?

[Simon]

Read The <i>Friendly</i> Manual

;)

[Ben Seeman]

Originally posted by dsimon
Read The <i>Friendly</i> Manual

;)
Yeah... that's what the "F" stands for.

[Hierax]

Ben/Steve,

Can we have a Martial Arts Forum on the new message boards?

I'm asking this because Hero Games has published a significant amount of martial arts related books (Ninja Hero 4e+5e, UMA 4e+5e, Watchers of the Dragon) that it would seem to warrant its own forum instead of "other genres".

You could say that there are more "Martial Hero" books than "Star Hero" books and that gets its own forum so how about a Martial Arts forum?

Thanks!

[Hermit]

I mean, how can it be wrong with friendly ole Defender in the frame to the side saying 'hi'? :)

Heck, it's almost worth the loss of the Cosmicly powerful status I had on Nato's boards ;)

[Talon]

I'm at 1024x768, and I have to say that the board feels "cramped" with the side nav bar -- although the pretty colored heroes are nice. :)

[MisterVimes]

Originally posted by ben
Yeah... that's what the "F" stands for.

I always thought it was Read the Furnished Materials... :D

[Jeff T.]

Boards look fantastic guys, wouldn't change a thing!

[Monolith]

I'm not fond of the 3 inch border on the left side of my screen but the message boards DO look nice. Great work guys!

[Edsel]

I'd say the new boards are going to be a hit. They've only been up for about 6 hours now, and my last check indicated 142 members already!:)

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Edsel
I'd say the new boards are going to be a hit. They've only been up for about 6 hours now, and my last check indicated 142 members already!:)
If you build it They will come. :)

[Chris Goodwin]

I'd like to log a vote for doing away with the nav bar on the left as well. Screen real estate issues aside, the color schemes jar; we've got the Hero Games blue and white, and the board green/white/grey.

[archermoo]

Originally posted by Monolith
If you build it They will come. :)

Or at least breathe hard... :)

[Mole]

Originally posted by archermoo
Or at least breathe hard... :)

Geez, Dude. :p